Havnebadet Islands Brygge

This guide to Havnebadet Islands Brygge in Copenhagen traces the harbor bath back to 2001, when a young, then-unbuilt architect named Bjarke Ingels and his partner Julien De Smedt landed an early commission to turn a stretch of long-polluted harbor into a public bath. You'll hear about the city's decade of quiet sewage cleanup, and a 2002 experiment where officials dropped a temporary pontoon pool into the harbor just to see whether anyone would use it. The guide describes how the permanent design echoed the ships docked along the pier, with timber decking, an angled diving platform and a funnel-shaped lifeguard tower. Notice the ship silhouette in the structure as you walk out onto the decking.